A Falling Star
by l'Amie de l'ABC
Summary: From a beautiful snake to nothing but the hollow shell of a woman, filled with the pure hatred of the world. The descent into insanity is a long path to tread.


**Is it really so difficult to understand that I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER?**

"We'll name her Bellatrix," an exhausted woman murmured, looking down at her daughter. "Bellatrix Black. A shining star."

The little baby cried, her wisps of black hair sticking up after being cleaned.

*v*v*

"Mother look!" A proud, six year old Bellatrix Black was holding a small snake in the air above her head, a smirk on her pretty features.

"What is it lovely?" Mrs. Black leaned down to inspect the snake, which had striped markings, oddly like the ones that her three-year-old nephew had been wearing on his shirt.

"It's Sirius!" the little girl cried, shaking the snake madly. "Wittle baby Siwius! He was bothering me! So I turned my ickle cousin into a snakey pie!"

Mrs. Black scolded her daughter for turning Sirius Black into a snake, and waved her wand, sending the three-year-old running for Walburga.

While she had thought it was not bad on the outside, it was more the fact that Bella had found it funny that disturbed Mrs. Black.

*v*v*

"Father!" Bellatrix Black cried, running into her father's arms.

"Hello love," her father said, twirling her in his arms.

"Bellatrix!" her mother called, hugging her daughter tight.

"Mother! Andromeda, Narcissa," she nodded at her sisters, who were sulking in the corner.

"How was Hogwarts Bella?" Andromeda ventured.

"Oh it was lovely Dromeda, Cissy," Bellatrix sighed. "I'm in Slytherin, of course, and oh there's this boy, Rodolphus, we were walking from Transfiguration and he hexed this little Gryffindor, it was magical." Her eyes had a hint of insanity behind their heavy lidded beauty.

*v*v*

Bellatrix Black had grown beautiful in the five years she had been at Hogwarts. Her long curly mane of hair rippled down her back, her dark heavy lidded eyes were mysterious, her tall figure brimming with elegance.

It was no wonder that her and Rodolphus were in love. It was in their eyes, the way they interacted, the way they prowled the halls together as Prefects.

So it was no wonder that they planned on marrying after Hogwarts, among other things.

*v*v*

"To Bella and Rodolphus!" her father cried, raising his glass of Firewhiskey.

"To Bella and Rodolphus!" the room echoed. The couple smiled graciously, waving at the few friends and family, along with other supporters of the regime that were assembled at the ceremony.

"We have some news!" Rodolphus announced. "Bella and I are now, officially, a part of the Death Eaters!"

Gasps rang through the room as friends congratulated them on the snakelike tattoos on their forearms.

*v*v*

"My lord, please my lord," her voice was husky, and she was on her knees, pleading with the terrible monster before her.

"I shall kill the Potters!" a cold voice proclaimed.

Bellatrix stood, smiling triumphantly.

"They will fall!"

She cheered with the rest of the room.

"And my Death Eaters will be rulers of the Muggle and Wizard worlds alike!"

*v*v*

"You know where he is!" Bellatrix snarled.

"I don't!" the woman with the kind face cried out. They had gone to Hogwarts together.

"Tell us!" Rodolphus yelled, enraged.

"He's out there!" a boy, merely eighteen, cried.

"We don't know!" the man cried, but his objections were cut off by screams of agony as Rodolphus pointed his wand at him.

"_Crucio!" _Bellatrix shrieked. Cackling like a madwoman, she relished in the screams that bounced off the wall.

*v*v*

"Father I didn't!"

"Quiet boy!" the judge yelled. "I have no son."

The boy standing next to Bellatrix collapsed into sobs, and for a small moment, she felt a drop of pity for the boy. But it was gone before it was truly there, and her heavy lidded beauty was back, covering the moment.

"Our master will return!" she cried. "And when he does, he will rule!" the Dementors dragged her away, still laughing.

*v*v*

She was huddled against the wall. What had been left of her mind before was now completely gone, leaving nothing but the shell filled with the insane burning rage, and the need to kill.

The Dementors left her cell, and she looked up. They would be back.

But hours passed, and they didn't return. And that's when she saw the lock. Bellatrix rose unsteadily to her bare feet, the wind of the cruel ocean on which Azkaban resided whipping the tattered dress around her spindly legs.

The wall was blasted apart, and Bellatrix stumbled blindly forward, relishing in the feeling of the air on her face for the first time in years.

Cackling like one who has nothing left but the insanity and the pure hatred of the world, the madwoman called upon her fellows.

*v*v*

The shimmering haze of spells was distracting, but to Bellatrix Lestrange, it was the best part of a battle. She whirled and twirled her wand, killing everybody in her path. But then somebody stopped. The little red-headed girl who the Potter boy cared for so much was replaced by a much larger red-headed woman.

And now the crazy smile was replaced by a snarl, as the duel grew more and more vicious.

But still the hectic, exhilarating feeling of being in battle that Bellatrix so thrived on and relished remained. And she let out a laugh, a mad cackle, and in that instant, the mistake was made.

The spell soared under her outstretched arm, and the last sound that Bellatrix Lestrange ever heard was his masters scream as the _dead _Potter boy revealed himself.

And then she, herself, was dead.

A beautiful girl. A tragic story. The decent into insanity. The falling of a star.


End file.
